I pay health insurance for lots of conditions I don't have

I pay for coverage for heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes--none of which I myself have. I pay for coverage for spinal cord injuries, bronchitis, kidney failure, and lung diseases. I pay for coverage for leukemia, breast cancer, testicular cancer, throat cancer, bone cancer, as well as lots and lots of diseases that I have been fortunate never to develop in my lifetime. I also pay for maternity coverage that I myself will never take advantage of. Why? Because that is what medical insurance is: it pools together funds across a population and spreads the risk. We never know what coverage we will eventually need, but we do know at some point in our lives we will need medical care of some type.

Why all this angst over paying for childbirth? Set aside the fact that we are liberals here who are supposed to have some concern for the broader society, as human beings we all have an interest in the propagation of the species. So what if your gender means you won't use certain types of medical services? There are a lot of medical services that, if you are fortunate, you will never need. No one uses every type of medical coverage. So what's with the belly aching about insurance companies having to cover birth control and child birth? Are the profits of the insurance companies really more important than your fellow citizens? And for those whose income is low enough to need government subsidies, why do liberals suddenly turn on each other because being female is no longer a pre-existing condition? Folks

12. The fact that people are missing is that women don't get pregnant without a man involved.

I mean, we do all understand how the birds and bees work right? Its perfectly fair for men to pay part of the childbirth burden when it comes to the health insurance pool. If a woman gets pregnant in the typical fashion, a man was also responsible for making that happen. I think this is the only argument that people need to make when men bitch about paying for maternity coverage.

19. Their numbers are increasing

20. I'm not sure it's a male-female thing

There is no complaint about covering breast cancer, etc. So if people are really complaining about covering childbirth, I think there is an element of pregnancy not being an illness, and being something you can choose. That is, you (usually, hopefully) choose to get pregnant, you largely have control over it, whereas you don't choose to get breast cancer. So then their argument is, hey, who said you can have a family on my dime? It's the same mind-set that is anti-welfare of all sorts.

21. Choice suggests you could do without it

We aren't talking about a face lift. This is the propagation of the human species. So while I personally can get by without having a baby, society cannot do without childbirth in general.
Mind you they are also complaining about women having coverage for birth control, which takes away the choice. I haven't seen any of them saying sex is unnecessary.

Some posters on this board have decided it is a male-female thing. You'd think that women were their mortal enemies, the way some people are acting.

39. The babies will be born anyway.

re: "This is the propagation of the human species. So while I personally can get by without having a baby, society cannot do without childbirth in general. "

Babies will be born whether Obamacare covers childbirth or not. The human species is not going to die out for lack of insurance. Some of the Haves are just complaining about making it easier, safer, and healthier for the Have-Nots to reproduce. Big surprise there.

43. So we should have high infant morality rates and deaths in childbirth

because you're cheap? You're one of the few in this thread who has raised objection to maternity coverage. I guess you don't intend on having heterosexual sex at any point in you lifetime. If you want to wash your hands of childbirth, you can't participate in the act that creates those babies.
Of course the whole position is hypocritical since you yourself benefited from medical care upon your own birth.

53. I think you mixed me up with someone else. Or didn't read carefully?

re: "You're one of the few in this thread who has raised objection to maternity coverage"

I never objected it to at all, nor would I. I explained what I thought the rationale behind the objection was, which is where I thought some of the other posts missed the mark. But then, I think made pretty obvious that I still thought the position was, shall we say, misguided.

75. There are a lot of choices that affect health -- food, drink, smoking, exercise.

78. But which are "conditions"?

Pregnancy is a condition requiring care, for which you would want coverage.

Eating, drinking, smoking, exercise, are not conditions, and so "coverage" per se does not apply. The things that may be caused by an excess of those things (in whole or in part), however, are covered... diabetes(?), liver disease, lung cancer, heart attacks.

But that does lead to an interesting question. Are weight loss treatments themselves, alcoholism treatments (detox programs), nicotine patches and the like covered?

30. And who is the part of the cause of impregnation? Men.

And how many pregnancies and childbirths are to women who are married to men? Men who are going to have that child as part of their family?

How selfish to not be willing to allow women that coverage when they need it.

Plus, as a homeowner my property taxes go to schools and I don't have kids. There's so much we pay for that we don't use because we are a collective. It's known as the commons, we all pay in and use what we need. It's a We society instead of a Me society. (props to Thom Hartmann for those terms and the wording)

34. Of course prostate cancer treatment must be covered

but it's not "my pregnancy." Do you have children? If not, you were born at some point. You've either impregnated women or used medical services to come into the world, or both. We are all in this together.

51. Yeah, I mean once you try to go down the road of picking and choosing, etc. it'll never end.

There are vegans who have multiple sex partners. Non-smokers who ride motorcycles fast. Etc. etc.

I've always felt the most sound thing to do- not just ethically, but financially- would be to have a SPHC system; spread the risk out equally and fairly among the largest pool possible.

Certainly there are things that are detrimental to peoples' health; with something like smoking I think public education and taxes are the way to go, along with minimizing the impact of 2nd hand smoke by regulating it in indoor, public spaces- etc.

But I do think it's a fool's errand to try to pick and choose with something like insurance.

61. Wee Free Man that you are, I'm sure you know that women have *always* had to pay for men's care

It has just gone without saying that men's health care will be covered, including especially their man-parts, up to and including Viagra. Has any health care benefit plan ever excluded prostate cancer treatments?

Somehow, though, when it comes to women's lady-parts, insurers come all over squeamish and tight-pursed. A huge number of benefit plans have left it entirely to the woman to pay out of pocket for birth control, pregnancy, and childbirth.

32. k and r--it is absolutely disgusting that on a supposedly "democratic" board, the actual nature

of insurance should even have to be explained. thought that concept was basic, but, apparently not. AND to discover that people are whining about women actually getting fair coverage???? beyond disgusting. sadly, though, it is not in the least surprising.

45. selfish

extremely selfish spoiled brats is what they are. They are the type that complains about paying school taxes, after their children have graduated.

I went to a school open house where a parent was complaining that the crayons she bought were for her daughter only and was upset to find out that the teacher put the crayons in the group container for groups of 4 to use. Outrage over a 30 cent box of crayons.

Some people have to be outraged over something. Selfishness seems to be leaking out of the teaparty.

65. all the more incomprehensible

48. Too Many

It is really not too well planned, this health care thing. You need a major medical on top of Medicare, then separately a dental plan, a health club plan, an eye care plan, long term care plan..... and others not on my menu.

58. All for It

56. We have paid homeowners' insurance for over 25 years and never used it.

We don't pay for what we use. We pay just in case we might use it.

That's what insurance is about.

We pay for people who make more claims than we do and who have potential liabilities larger than ours. Why? Because we are only two people. Our children don't live with us any more. We have fewer opportunities to incur claims, but our insurance rates don't change just because we don't have as many opportunities for claims.

You may not have children, but you may have problems that cost more than children do.

57. I am personally the most annoyingly healthy person out there.

I could easily get all resentful about the health insurance premiums I've paid over the years. Instead, I try to appreciate my amazing good health.

Being sick is its own punishment. Even though I scorn those who smoke, often have little sympathy with those who are obese, and can denigrate all sorts of conditions I think are preventable, I still think that those people deserve as much health care as they need. So what if others make poor decisions? We can work on getting people to make better decisions, but meanwhile let's take care of whatever ails them.

Yes, only women have babies. But not all women have babies. This is a lot like the taxes for schools issues. I can get mightily angry at those without children who complain about school taxes. First of all, I want to point out that someone else's taxes helped educate them. And no matter how many children you might have, most adults only have kids in public schools for a small portion of their tax-paying life. Having a well-educated populace benefits us all. As does having good health care benefit us all.

It's my personal opinion that we are here to take care of each other. So let's do that.

92. For the guys who want to see how it benefits them

as a straight male I figure I may eventually have a wife and maybe a daughter or more, and I would want them to have a fair price for health insurance. Lower rates encourage more to sign up, and use it for checkups. And most of us understand the importance of preventive checkups for a person's overall well-being and lowers costs over time by catching problems early on. Women who get regular checkups are probably going to have conversations about stuff like std prevention and testing, as well as family planning and other important issues. Women who are more informed are less likely to catch an std or have unwanted pregnancy, and that lowers costs. And I would certainly want pregnant women to have access to prenatal care because that would lead to healthier children and lower costs.

The ACA makes it more affordable to have females in your life in many ways.

And of course if you don't need that much direct benefit to be convinced, you'll be happy with the old mantra that everyone benefits when EVERYONE benefits and we're only as strong as our weakest link so no one gets left behind.

94. Is there such an insurance that you can pick and choose what you want to be covered for?

Yes, through the company job we have several different options. But really, who gets to pick and choose to that extent on what they want to be insured for? Hell, to my knowledge, they still won't let you pick the cable channels you want. You have to buy a "package." Can one really say "I want this and this and this," as if from a cafe menu? I'm definitely not one of the "Me-Me-Me" people who are griping about having to pay for a service I will never need. If someone is doing that on this board, they are not a Democrat, BainsBane. they are a Republican troll. Let it go in one eye and out of the other.